[zooropa]

I've been on 30mg of remeron for a few years now (maybe 4? 5? 3? idk), along with cymbalta, for depression.

I have never liked this drug, or rather I have never liked the side effects namely the fact that it makes me crave sugar and makes it impossible to lose weight.

So I've tried to wean off of it a couple of times, with my pdoc's blessing, but always end up back on it because I find my mood crashing right away. The last time I saw her she said that I could try going off of it again if I want, or I could wait, that it's up to me.

What's going on right now is that I forgot to take my meds 2 nights in a row last week (Mon and Tues). When I realized, I took the cymbalta right away because I know how awful the withdrawals from that are. I felt ok, mood wise, though, so I decided to try to just quit the remeron.

So it's been a week since I had any. I'm sleeping ok, probably not any better or worse than usual. I have been more tired the last few days, which could be from that or from just life or who knows what. Today I am definitely, definitely more weepy than usual. Actually I noticed that I cried watching Survivor a couple days ago, and that was my first clue that maybe I'm more emotional than usual, lol!

That's the background, and I'm wondering if anyone here has any personal experience they can give me about going off this med. I'm sure it's all cleared from my system by now. Can I expect a few more days of weepiness and then a gradual return to baseline?

I'm not really depressed right now, just kind of blah, and if that's as bad as it gets and if I can expect my body and brain chemistry to gradually compensate and bring me back to my baseline, then I'll happily stay off the drug and do the happy dance.

If, on the other hand, I'm just going to keep sliding further and further down, then I'll take some asap and stop the downward spiral.

I have an appt with my pdoc in the next couple weeks and I'll ask her then, just looking for some peer advice in the meantime.

[Confusedinomicon]

If you have gone off all your meds and experienced relapse of symptoms it means you need to taper off the medication.

Your doctor should not be telling you to go off medication without any kind of viable plan. Period. It's not safe and you want to minimize the side effects by lowering it more slowly. You'll have greater success going off.

It says that the half life is 20-40 hours, which means it should be out of your blood within a week or two. However, you should still talk to your doctor about serotonin discontinuation syndrome so you're prepared if you happen to be an individual that experiences this from dropping antidepressants.

[zooropa]

didn't sleep last night, had massive anxiety today. I need to get back on this med I think, and I put in a call to my pdoc asking her if I should titrate the dose back up or just start where I was. I think I should probably titrate. I'm pretty sure she's not in the office this week, though, so IDK if I'll get a call back or not.

anyway, that's what's up over here. Third try going off remeron, third failure.

ps got a call back from the pdoc's office saying to call the pharmacy and ask them. Spoke to a pharmacist who said to ask my pdoc. Super.

[Confusedinomicon]

Titrate up sounds safer.